Massage tycoon sues Central Railway in Mumbai for giving free massage

Mumbai. Mr. Nirlaj Sharma who runs hundreds of massage parlors across multiple locations in Mumbai, sued the Central Railways (CR) for hurting profits of the massage industry by providing free massage service to people traveling through Mumbai locals.

The owner of a myriad number of parlous, named after his daughters Pinky and Sweety, Nirlaj complained that by not having proper crowd control in local trains running on the central line, the Central Railway was giving free massage service to the passengers, dissuading potential customers from visiting his parlors.

Soothing and relaxing, with the sweat playing the role of oil.

“Business has never been this challenging. We get customers who quote examples of how a 15 minutes ride to Kurla from Thane station helped them get rid of muscle and joint pains for free. This has made our customers more demanding in terms of service and cost,” Mr. Nirlaj told Faking news.

On being contacted by this reporter, one of his ex-customers Mr. Gadha, who works for an MNC in BKC, confirmed how his experience of commuting to office has been an enlightening one.

“Not only have the costs of getting a full body massage reduced, but I can also save time as I get the service while commuting. I use the free time to impress my boss,” says Gadha, who used to spend around INR 5000 every month on getting massages.

He adds, “I just make sure I board a local, preferably a fast one, from Thane at peak office hours and place myself in the center of the crowd. You get a great massage experience throughout your body including your feet. It completely eases your body by the time you reach office. It’s all free!”

This is not the first time that the Indian railways has received such a complaint. Previously, after a passenger’s blog about his exhilarating experience of traveling to Andheri on a Virar bound fast local went viral, massage parlor operators had expressed concern of losing business.

Sources say that after receiving such cues, even the railway ministry is contemplating generating revenue from the service by charging a “massage fee” on tickets for trains running at peak office hours in some routes. While Rail Minister Gowda remained unavailable for any comments, it has been learnt that he is planning to travel in the locals soon to assess the revenue potential.